Seems like it will take so long and cost so much, I'll never get to experience a WingSuit

[QuietStorm 0]

Wow...very interesting post; haven't seen something this PASSIONATE in a very long time.

I have a lot of comments, there is alot of stuff I really want to say in response to the comments of my fellow birds of how we got to where we are in skydiving.

So I'll focus on one very important thing; MONEY!....Funds you can budget and afford.

Unless you are willing to make the "cuts" and get into Army and Spec Ops; all private civilian aviation related activities COST LOTS OF MONEY. Just the way it is in high risk sports.

Nothing will get in the way quicker of you achieving your goals in skydiving more than LACK OF MONEY.

You have "seen the math" on this post so far. How do you think somebody can go from 0 jumps to over 1,300 in just 2 years? MONEY. Look at other wingsuiters profiles and you will see longer times in the sport and maybe some lower jump numbers.

I started in college in 1987. I jumped scary surplus gear that was 25 years old and was awarded a free jump for every new first jump student I brought to the D.Z.; that's how I "financed" my student training back in the static line days.

Being commissioned as a Naval Officer, and having a "good job"...gave money to jump.

In skydiving ALL THINGS ARE MADE POSSIBLE BY MONEY. Training, rigs, wind tunnel time, jump tickets; for everthing you need to gain in experience you are going to be handing over MONEY.

4 Way Teams come to Eloy pouring thousands and thousands of dollars into the windtunnel and coaching from AirSpeed or Arsenal. MONEY.

Some folks live close to poverty sacrificing what some folks consider to be "necessity" to finance their passion, others have racked up HUGE Credit Card debt ruining themselves financially, others are employed in such as fashion so that there is so MUCH MONEY they have two rigs, a private packer, and wipe thier ass with $100 bills.

MONEY is the resource that makes many things possible; professional education such as law or medical school..... perhaps a business launch.

Figure out what it takes for you to get your hands on MONEY and you will not have to choose between SCUBA or SKYDIVING.

Until that time you are going to have to realistically base your timeline and achievement of your dreams /goals in skydiving around HOW MUCH MONEY YOU CAN GET YOUR HANDS ON.

And that's probably the best no B.S. realistic advice I can say after 20 years in the sport.

[The111 1]

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I'm familar with forums and how a search function works.

Are you familar with how question and answers on a public forum works?

It doesn't work very well when the newbie gets tetchy with the person trying to give him good advice.

Don't mind jakee. Here are some answers for you.

www.WingsuitPhotos.com

[lurch 0]

Hey.
I've been wingsuiting since before it was cool. Its worth whatever effort it takes to get there. The experience of working your way up to it, then learning to actually DO it, and the adventures you'll have and the people you'll meet and the places you'll go and the sights you will see will enrich your life beyond any standard of measure you can imagine.
The thing to ask yourself is: How bad do you want it?
Itll take an ungodly amount of hard work and dedication but if you want it bad enough, you can do it.
The first time you bodysurf down the side of a majestic white puffy cloud 3 miles high with your friends, screaming in pure joy as you go, you'll know it was worth it.
When I started on the path to wingsuiting I was a bit of a loser. Semiprofessional tech hack, biggest distinction in life of holding a job travelling a bit and owning a beat up 4x4 warwagon.

I got it by arranging to live and work within 15 miles of the DZ so I could be there, often, quickly. Got a factory job nearby that pays fairly well compared to, say, flipping burgers. Went prolonged periods spending no money I could avoid spending.
Worked more 12 hour days under brutal workloads than I care to remember so I could rack up the cash to do it.
Just getting qualified to even TRY a wingsuit is an incredible epic journey in and of itself, man. A whole lot of unbelievably intense shit is going to happen to you one way or another on your way there. Believe me, don't worry about it looking like such a long hard road to get there. It won't feel that way when you're ON that road. You'll be far, far too busy trying to stay alive and learning to get bored, man.
Then, just when you realize you're badass enough to have survived 200 skydives and started to get a little bored with freefalling straight down in its many varieties, you put on a wingsuit and suddenly one step takes you two miles. All those canyons in the clouds you always wanted to explore... now you can. You jump out the door, spread your wings and just stop...falling. You're still going down, but now you can GO somewhere.
2 weekends ago at Jumptown I was test flying a big yellow suit. First time out the door with it the guys still in the plane hanging out the door told me they saw me go up. When I looked at the plane 5 seconds after I got out, I was still on level with it and could see the guys still in the door. I hadn't lost any altitude yet. You have any idea what that feels like? Drunk on freedom, man. Ridiculously prolonged freefall and 100-mph mobility in the sky will blow. Your. Mind.
Let your enthusiasm guide you. Work your ass off. Make friends along the way. Take care of your own and they will take care of you. You have no idea how many good people you will meet in the sky. The same people you're helping out today are the people guarding your back in the sky tomorrow. You have a huge family you haven't met yet of people you'll find it a privilege to know. Forget about how long the road is. The road is everything. It is the life itself. Every skydive is the most important skydive of your life. Its the one you're doing right now. Live that life long enough and you can fly a wingsuit.
Now get going. We'll be here when you get here. Split a cloud with ya someday.
Fly safe.
-B

Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

[hjumper33 0]

Move to Lodi for the summer. Tell Bill you want to become a skydiver and youll do anything. Within 6 months youll be a tandem master and have more than enough jumps to wingsuit, but youll be in Bill's pocket, which is not a good place to be. Seriously though, cheap static line course, $13 jumps every day, and some of the best wingsuit pilots in the country to learn from.

[JohanW 0]

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Hey.
I've been wingsuiting since before it was cool. Its worth whatever effort it takes to get there. The experience of working your way up to it, then learning to actually DO it, and the adventures you'll have and the people you'll meet and the places you'll go and the sights you will see will enrich your life beyond any standard of measure you can imagine.

people like Lurch.
One of the reasons I'm looking forward to the 100-ways in November.

Johan.
I am. I think.

[jakee 1,445]

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I'm familar with forums and how a search function works.

Are you familar with how question and answers on a public forum works?

It doesn't work very well when the newbie gets tetchy with the person trying to give him good advice.

Don't mind jakee. Here are some answers for you.

Fuckin' A!

Now all I have to do is move to Ohio and I'll be in business

Do you want to have an ideagasm?

[kallend 1,935]

You could just suck it up and do it, like the rest of us did.

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[SkymonkeyONE 4]

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But how do you afford 10 jumps in a day?

It's called a credit card. Feel free to run one or more up to the limit and then simply default on them.

[The111 1]

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Feel free to run one or more up to the limit and then simply default on them.

And now you have Chuck's permission!

www.WingsuitPhotos.com

[crwper 7]

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It all starts with money.

Of course, you need a bit of money to jump, but I'd be cautious about putting things off until you have "enough" money. Like many, I started skydiving while I was in university. I worked hard during the summer, played hard on the weekends, and leaned on student loans a bit during the school year. Still, I managed about 100 jumps a year during that time.

I also spent pretty well every weekend at the dropzone, rain or shine. Sometimes things cleared up enough to jump, and sometimes it was just a good place to hang out.

I guess what I'm trying to get at here is, for most of the people I know who got past one or two tandem jumps, it was never about the money. If you really want to do this, don't wait for the stars to line up. Just get going, and before you know it, you'll have 200 jumps.

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Sure I can sky dive any where much easier, but wingsuiting is going to take a special place with mountains and valleys, so I'll be traveling either way.

It sounds like you might be talking about wingsuit BASE jumping. In that case, you're probably looking at a lot more than 200 skydives. I'd recommend you look at that as a long-term goal, otherwise you'll burn out for sure. In the meantime, start jumping, and enjoy the short-term goals along the way.

Michael

[Martini 0]

Lots of answers, lots of advice. Here's mine. Decide what it is that you want to do and then go do it. Time, money, family, commitments, yadda, shit. Quit whining, nobody feels sorry for you. No one will give you money so you'll shut up and go away. Get a LIFE!

Hey that was fun, anybody else wanna bitch slap?

Sometimes you eat the bear..............

[lurch 0]

Who, me? You gotta be kidding me. I'm the same guy that smashed Scotty B's bite switch with a hunk of concrete, (no matter how many times I explain that one, it still doesn't make any sense) took out Ed Pawlowski at one of the FnD events, and was insane enough to make a biker jacket into a wingsuit.
If you're gonna party with me, bring body armor, rescue flares, a fire extinguisher, a cellphone and a sponge.
As for the rest of you, all I gotta say is wow. You've taken the whole beat-on-the-newbie thing to a whole new level, and he ain't even a newbie yet. Aren't you supposed to wait till AFTER he starts skydiving? I mean, come on. If you drive him off before he starts jumping, the beating is short and you don't get to enjoy it. Once hes in and hooked, THEN you start in on him, and the beating lasts a lifetime. So far, the only one to provide usefully crafty advice that shows evidence of careful planning for future beatings is Chuck.
Never start with the head. The victim gets all fuzzy...
Amateurs.

Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

[LouDiamond 1]

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So far, the only one to provide usefully crafty advice that shows evidence of careful planning for future beatings is Chuck.

Dats cuz nun of deese foo's talking smack knows da first thang about slinging da nylon crack. Even da little G's be knowing dat the first taste be free.


But yeah, I have to agree with you lurch, I think they've hit an even lower low in the WS forum with this one.

"It's just skydiving..additional drama is not required"
Some people dream about flying, I live my dream
SKYMONKEY PUBLISHING

[skybytch 265]

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Be happy I'm intersted in the sport and taking the right steps to find out how to achieve it.

The right steps to finding out how to achieve your goal include getting off of the chair and out to a dropzone, not sitting in front of computer "talking" to people that you don't know, that may or may not be giving you correct information, and that may or may not even be skydivers IRL. Don't take this the wrong way, but lots of us have seen lots and lots of you in the past, and amazingly enough very few of those lots and lots ever end up doing more than 100 jumps (if they ever made it to a dropzone at all).

If you really feel a need to read about skydiving on the internet, go here and download the SIM. It contains EVERYTHING that you will learn in your student training, and much to assist you in at least your first couple hundred (or thousand, depending on what you end up doing in the sport) jumps.

As an AFFI, when a student tells me they've been hanging out here I heave a heavy sigh, knowing that the teaching is going to take much longer than it would with someone who spent that same amount of time reading and absorbing the information in the SIM. These forums are great for meeting people and socializing, less great for getting correct information. Case in point is the person who said you only need to have made 120 jumps to fly a wingsuit; you didn't know he was kidding (or in internet forum terms, "adding noise") so you believed him.

Do yourself and your future instructors a favor - stop reading and posting in the topical forums here. If you really think you want to be a skydiver, go to a dropzone.

[DSE 5]

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Allow me to quote Tupac Shakur: "Work is fo suckas." All the cool kids start wingsuit at 120 jumps. The even cooler kids start wingsuit at 120 jumps AND do it solo without a first flight course. I guess the question is "How cool do you want to be?"

You forgot the most cool of the elite cool, those that started around 60 jumps _with_ an instructor.

[pierre3636 0]

man i remember that feeling ....

ws is a piece of cake - and once you have done it all the money all the credit all the driving around and travel to the dz will be worth it.
the road in my view is a lot safer and shorter than becoming a very good free flyer or swooper.

i dunno i scuba when i travel and stuff and its cool and all but seriously doesnt compare to skydiving. you dont even really need to bother buying scuba gear - just rent it as you go (mask and essentials aside) - you will only travel with scuba gear once in your life - IT sucks.

i can see how you think both are out there and perhaps out the box experiences but they are totally different - you will realize soon enough!

good luck with your journey - be safe - follow the rules

~ time is ~ time was ~ times past ~

[VectorBoy 0]

those that started around 60 jumps _with_ an instructor.

[mrbiceps 0]

If you are really keen on getting to the 200 jump mark for as cheaply as possible you can fly camera from jump 100. Pick up a cheap camera set up, like sony hc40 / 52 from someone who is upgrading and practice from jump 100 and when you get good at it see if you can find a 4 way team or similar that you can film. They will pay for your slot and free jumps from there on. Good luck on your quest. Remember that the worst thing in life would be lying in some nursing home when your 80 watching tv and seeing some guy having mad fun flying a wingsuit and thinking how you always wanted to do it but never got off your butt and started the aff course.

[virgin-burner 1]

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Allow me to quote Tupac Shakur: "Work is fo suckas." All the cool kids start wingsuit at 120 jumps. The even cooler kids start wingsuit at 120 jumps AND do it solo without a first flight course. I guess the question is "How cool do you want to be?"

You forgot the most cool of the elite cool, those that started around 60 jumps _with_ an instructor.

thanks for reminding me again how arrr-sum i really am..

“Some may never live, but the crazy never die.”
-Hunter S. Thompson
"No. Try not. Do... or do not. There is no try."
-Yoda

[Zeemax 0]

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If you are really keen on getting to the 200 jump mark for as cheaply as possible you can fly camera from jump 100. Pick up a cheap camera set up, like sony hc40 / 52 from someone who is upgrading and practice from jump 100 and when you get good at it see if you can find a 4 way team or similar that you can film. They will pay for your slot and free jumps from there on. Good luck on your quest. Remember that the worst thing in life would be lying in some nursing home when your 80 watching tv and seeing some guy having mad fun flying a wingsuit and thinking how you always wanted to do it but never got off your butt and started the aff course.

In a number of countries it's a minimum of 200[/] jumps to fly a camera set up, and even then a high percentage of people shouldn't be jumping one at that stage.

Even if you do, it's going to be a while before anyone wants to pay your slots until you can prove you can actually fly your body to keep things in frame.

Also, racking up jump numbers like this is not going to get you in a wingsuit any quicker. If someone showed up to me at jump 200 with 100 camera jumps, i'd tell them to do some more jumping. Learn how to actually fly your body, then come back.

200 jumps really isn't a lot. Forget about the wingsuit for now and instead get to the DZ, jump your ass off and have as much fun as you can while doing it. Learn as much as you can, and just skydive.

Then, a couple of years down the line, when you have some good experience behind you, think again about getting into wingsuiting. The sky will always be there. No need to rush.

Phoenix Fly - High performance wingsuits for skydiving and BASE
Performance Designs - Simply brilliant canopies

[Sangi 0]

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The sky will always be there. No need to rush.

It's always easy to say this for people like you, who already achieved that and are enjoying it...

"Dream as you'll live forever, live as you'll die today." James Dean

[millertime24 8]

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Learn how to actually fly your body, then come back.

What would you tell someone with several hours of tunnel time with 200 jumps?

Muff #5048

[Skwrl 56]

I'm not sure if the original poster is still reading this thread or not, but it seems like there's a pretty simple path forward.

Decide whether or not you want to achieve the goal; if you want to wingsuit, do what you need to do to achieve it. If it's important enough to you, you'll get there. If your ADD kicks in and you decide you want to do something else, that's fine, too.

It sounds like simplistic advice, but Lao-Tzu was right on this one: even a thousand mile journey begins with a single step.

Save up $200 and go to a local dropzone and try out a tandem (or AFF, doesn't matter, though I'm sure a lot of people here have preferences about whether you should do a tandem before AFF; that's not the point here).

Rather than complain about how far the distance is, start the journey. Like Lurch said (yeah, quoting Lurch and Lao-Tzu in same post, scary), getting the necessary experience to start wingsuiting is an adventure in itself.

Skwrl Productions - Wingsuit Photography

Northeast Bird School - Chief Logistics Guy and Video Dork

[skybytch 265]

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It's always easy to say this for people like you, who already achieved that and are enjoying it...

If you aren't enjoying the journey toward achieving your goal, why bother chasing it?

[Zeemax 0]

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The sky will always be there. No need to rush.

It's always easy to say this for people like you, who already achieved that and are enjoying it...

you are making the very wrong assumption that I have achieved everything I want to in skydiving. If that were the case, I wouldn't be jumping any more

Phoenix Fly - High performance wingsuits for skydiving and BASE
Performance Designs - Simply brilliant canopies